Hiring is really hard. That is why it is every manager’s least favorite job. We at MiraVista have discovered, after our share of painful missteps, that who and where we recruit are critical to building the right team. The answers to those questions, however, are seldom obvious.

After 13 years of perpetual experimentation, our current staff is made up of talent we found from a variety of sources: the physical sciences, hospitality management, and public school administration. We even have a former mortician. In fact, we do not actively seek out people with medical billing experience. We find that hiring based on character traits such as critical thinking, problem solving, and customer service yields very strong results because those individuals bring applicable experience from outside our spheres of comfort and experience. We can teach the technical aspects of medical billing and produce experience in our field, but we cannot fabricate the passion or depth that helps us mature and advance as our industry changes.

For example, as we expand our payment posting department, we do not look for coding expertise. We seek bookkeepers and accountants…those who love numbers and checks and balances. We use Sudoku and other logic puzzles to test, not just their cognitive ability, but their comfort with and awareness of numbers.

Alternatively, we might find AR talent masked as a college graduate with a physical science degree. Because they are comfortable forming and testing hypotheses, they are wildly successful at finding overall solutions rather than simply working one denial while ten thousand more pile in.

Additionally, we discovered raw ability is not enough. Individuals must demonstrate that they make others better. Without the ability to teach and take pride in the development of peers and subordinates, an organization becomes dependent on a few people, and those people inevitably create bottlenecks that inhibit growth. Being good at the task is one thing. Being able to make others good is truly remarkable.

We’ve learned to think about candidates in a new light so we can recognize talent wherever we find it. We work hard not to limit our pool of recruits by seeking experience that can be taught on the job. The secret to tenure is avoiding the wrong people to get more of the right people to the table. There is no doubt it has been a struggle to get consistent results, but the dividends are palpable.

We hope you will join us for a continuation of this conversation as we share more practical lessons from our pursuit of the right candidate during our webinar “Stop Hiring the Wrong People: A DME Guide” at 2 PM ET on May 19, 2016.